Carlos AcostaIn Cuba, I started break-dancing in the 80s. I was imitating Michael Jackson and so my father forced me into ballet. For three years I struggled; I had the ability to mimic movement very well, but I was unreliable. They cast me in shows and didn’t know if I was going to turn up or not. One time they had to stop a show for an hour and a half to look for me. I was out playing, they found me completely soaked in mud. At the age of 13 I saw the National Ballet of Cuba for the first time. That’s when I fell in love with it. I saw the professionals doing all the lifts and carrying the girl with one hand and I decided, “I want to do that.”

I see an injury as an opportunity to explore a new way of moving

Tommy FranzénSprained ankles, pulled hamstrings, back problems, neck problems, shoulder problems. I see it all as an opportunity for learning and I try to explore movement that I can do with that injury, modifying moves, coming up with new moves without using that arm or that leg. Take the opportunity to explore a new way of moving.

Tamara RojoA lot of it is just working and working, because repetition creates instinct, especially in ballet. It is literally repeating things so many times that it becomes muscle memory. Only now when I’m about to stop dancing do I feel I am a good dancer, for the first time in my life. Now my body knows how to do things, it’s not my mind telling me how to do it, it’s my body.

Teneisha Bonner in Into The Hoods. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

Lauren CuthbertsonDon’t mess around with your diet when you’re a teenager. It’ll mess you up. I saw it happen when I was young. It becomes this obsession, and the biggest gossip of the dance class is what people have got in their lunchbox. You need the energy to work hard, and if you mess up your metabolism when you’re younger you’ve got less chance of being able to maintain that when you’re older. You’re growing and you need the strength; your bones need the nourishment.

Teneisha BonnerBeing a dancer is uncomfortable. I was teaching the other day and I was saying to them, “For those of you who are interested in doing this professionally, understand: it hurts. And you guys who are doing it for a hobby, that’s fine, but it still hurts.” Whichever way you approach it, the common denominator is pain.

Adam GarciaI’ve been so nervous I’ve vomited before a show. It affects your singing, it affects your dancing. The tension affects my tapping. I’ve no idea how to stop it. Hypnosis – does that work?

Matthew GoldingCharisma? I think it’s just good lighting, good make-up.

Aaron Sillis (left) with Ivan Putrov and Elena Glurdjidze in Ithaca from Putrov’s Men In Motion. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

Aaron SillisThe lifestyle of a dancer can be very difficult. There’s a lot of partying that goes along with it. Performing at night, it can be 10.30 or 11 when you leave the theatre and you can’t come down quickly. Some people go out for those couple of hours and then you’re never getting the downtime, you’re straight in to the next day. When I did Twyla Tharp’s Movin’ Out, I didn’t touch alcohol until the closing-night party. I’d come off stage feeling completely exhausted and drained, go home to sleep, wake up feeling like I couldn’t get through the show again. I’d warm up, do company class, have 110% energy for the show and then come off stage and feel like I was going to die. A lot of the time it’s like that.

Seeta PatelIt’s important to keep challenging yourself, but I think that can sometimes be misinterpreted as constantly doing something new or grossly different rather than an internal refinement.

Kenrick “H2O” SandyI may work on a cartwheel for three weeks but I’ll be looking at how many different versions of a cartwheel I can do. Two-handed, one-handed, one-handed with the following hand, no hands, cartwheel on the forearm. You perfect each of them to the level where it becomes like water, so when I do a move it just flows. When I get on stage, I’m not Kenrick Sandy, I am my alter ego, H2O. That character has a different kind of energy. Most dancers in hip-hop do that, have an AKA. As an individual you can feel quite vulnerable sometimes, so it’s best to put out someone who is more confident and outgoing, so the real you can just be happy and cool.

Matthew ReesDon’t be afraid of failing. It’s a case of taking it and brushing it off and then carrying on.

Kate PrinceI know some really talented dancers who spend half their year doing promo work, standing in Waterloo station trying to sell a new conditioner, because work comes when it comes. I know a great dancer who started her own dogsitting company and she does that when she’s not performing. I think they’re smart. We’re all freelance and you’ve got to have something to pay your way.

Matthew BournePushiness is an interesting subject. I work with so many people now – this year we had three companies going at the same time, 100 dancers – and the people who keep on my radar are more likely to be in my head when I’m casting something. It’s clever to remind people you’re there. Go and see their show and say hello, or write them a nice message. It’s very good for choreographers to hear you love their work. It sounds narcissistic but it’s not. It’s just great to work with people who are as excited as you are.

Jonathan GoddardI used to think going to vocational dance school was more important, but now I’m encountering people that trained in Shaolin kung fu and rhythmic gymnastics. The titans of modern dance techniques – Cunningham and Graham – are starting to slide away. Ballet is fairly constant. I think whatever your practice you should touch base with ballet. Don’t be scared of it. If you’re scared of it you’ve got the wrong teacher.

My very first teacher taught me to be fearless

Steven McRaeMy very first teacher taught me to be fearless. “You can jump higher than that!” she would say. “Why can’t you do the splits?” So I would stretch every day until I could do the splits. There was never any question, it was, “Just do it.” I remember aged eight she was teaching me double tours en l’air. I just threw myself around. A lot of dancers lose that freedom.

Stephen MearThere’s a big difference between ambitious and obnoxious. There’s nothing wrong with being ambitious, not in the sense of wanting to stab somebody in the back, but in the sense of wanting to be good. The English lack that.

Hofesh Shechter in rehearsal. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

Maxine DoyleI must have seen thousands of young dancers in the UK and the US. We look for people who are dynamic, have a good use of the floor, energy, a sense of risk. But beyond that, I’m most interested in presence and charisma and confidence. And I’m interested in dancers who aren’t frightened of acting.

Hofesh ShechterFor me, dancers that think they’ve “got it” are kind of boring. In our art form there is no indication of whether what you’re doing is right or wrong. It’s only cultural agreement. So the idea that somebody feels like they’re doing it really well, for me that doesn’t work. But the idea that there are a million ways of doing it and somebody did it in an interesting way, now that I can accept. It’s the endless search.

Darcey BussellRetiring is always tough because dancing is the only thing you know about yourself. That is your strength. When you suddenly don’t have that, you feel lost. Suddenly you’re on your own. I made sure I had other distractions as soon as I retired, other things to focus on. That’s what helped me cope. And there are so many ways of using all the disciplines you have from dance in your everyday life.

Arlene PhillipsI think the demands on dancers are greater than ever. At one time dancers weren’t expected to do so many different styles. When I was first teaching in London I used to get a lot of the Royal Ballet dancers coming to my rock-jazz classes in secret. Nowadays the classical dancers are exploring all kinds of contemporary dance and the dancers are being pushed beyond the limits, not just of the body but of the mind.

Tommy Franzén in Smile from The Associates at Sadler’s Wells. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

You have to grow a thick skin, rhino skin because of the rejection

Tommy FranzénYou have to grow a thick skin, rhino skin, because the amount of rejection you can have – even if you’re successful – it’s a huge amount. Probably getting one out of 10 auditions that you go for is normal.

Adam GarciaIt’s both the horrible thing about theatre and the beauty of it: you can have a horrific moment where you want the stage to swallow you up, feeling humiliated and the curtain comes down and you feel shit. And then the next night it’s a completely new audience that have never seen the show before and you get to make amends.

Tamara RojoThere’s a fear of disappointing people, a fear of not being good enough. That’s when it will come and play games with your mind and that’s when I’ve found that having rituals, having a consistent way of preparing for something, for me, is the only way to not succumb to panic.

Marlon “Swoosh” WallenOn stage, you automatically have to turn yourself into an entertainer. You’re no longer dancing for yourself, there’s an audience, they need to be entertained, that’s what you’re there to do. You can afford to be charismatic, cocky; you can afford to be a little bit cheeky, because now you’re entertaining, it won’t come across as arrogant.

Darcey Bussell in Apollo at Royal Ballet in 2007. Photograph: Tristram Kenton for the Guardian

Darcey BussellMaking mistakes, that’s part of the job. It’s all about taking risks. Don’t be safe. A lot of dancers would say, “Oh, I can’t do that.” There is a lot of fear. I was happy to make mistakes. I was happy to throw myself into something and make a fool of myself. It wasn’t about always doing everything perfectly straight away. You have to test yourself and see.

Lauren CuthbertsonDarning pointe shoes is so time-consuming, but I think the minute you don’t care to sew your shoes for the next day is the minute you don’t really care about dancing. I find it quite calming – unless it’s five minutes before the Sleeping Beauty and you’re about to do the Rose Adagio.

Adam Garcia As a dancer, or an actor, you are going to hear “no” a lot more than you hear ‘yes’. It’s not always personal. Sometimes they might have a point, maybe you do need to work on this a bit more, maybe that’s what holding you back. But be prepared to hear no ninety per cent of the time. I audition still for things and I don’t get them. Realistically, if I get three jobs out of, let’s say, 50 auditions a year, I’m a 6% strike rate. But I get work.

One way of getting noticed is to have a kick-ass technique

Tamara RojoOne way of getting noticed is to have a kick-ass technique. If you go to a class and you can do more pirouettes than everybody else, and your legs are higher than everybody else, and you can jump higher than everybody else, people will notice. The truth is, if you are a good dancer, people will notice. That’s the good thing about ballet, it is meritocratic.

Wayne McGregorAt the end of the day, it’s only dancing. And I’m obsessed and passionate, and it is my whole life, but it is only dancing.

Cassa PanchoOne piece of advice to someone who wanted to be a dancer? Become an accountant.